IntroductionHave
you ever imagined a television that made you really feel that the image
is a window on your world of programming, achieving the sort of drop
dead gorgeous quality that no one can look away from (unless the person
just doesn’t care about TV or picture quality)? As someone who already
owns two Sony QUALIA 004 front projectors, I naturally had high hopes
and expectations when I decided to take the plunge and buy a QUALIA 006
rear projector for another room in my lab/home. The first of these
expectations included an exceptionally sharp picture (even by
comparison to 35mm film projected at the same size), as befits Sony’s
new SXRD 1920 x 1080p three-chip reflective LCos technology. Another
was outlandish light output (I measured 90 foot-lamberts with the bulb
in the low mode and a contrast ratio of over 3000:1!). Finally,
fantastic styling (like a Cartier Watch), as well as a wealth of the
usual inputs, including two HDMI (one with separate L/R audio inputs)
and two 1394 firewire four-pin (front and back), suitable for use with
most camcorders, still cameras and video HDCP-compliant devices like
Sony laptops and certain DVD players.

The Sony QUALIA 006 delivers on all of these
expectations and much, much more in abundance. This massive and
expensive 70-inch diagonal rear projector (MSRP $13,000) weighs in at
285 pounds and truly demands the recommended stand ($1,500). The
character of the set is stunning. Its silver polished aluminum and
plastic casing commands attention in any room. This is a great thing,
because it looks like modern-day sculpture, something that would be at
home at the Cooper-Hewitt or Museum of Modern Art. Yet when you turn
this television on, its picture completely dwarfs its architecture,
offering up an incredibly lifelike image that has to be seen to be
believed.

Because this piece is a QUALIA it uses Sony’s proprietary reflective
LCos technology (SXRD). This is similar to what JVC has created for its
D-ILA projectors, but the two technologies look completely different.
In comparisons I have made repeatedly, here in my lab and at customer’s
homes, the SXRD is capable of resolving much more color information
without looking the slightest bit unnatural. This undoubtedly is due in
part to Sony’s choice of a 200-watt UHP bulb, which has a life span
that potentially could extend beyond 2000 hours (user replacement cost
$300). There is also Sony’s choice of color primaries, which define the
size and accuracy of the color reproduction triangle. This, in
combination with the bulb’s fairly neutral spectral response, allows
this projector to recreate photographic realism in your home theater
with aplomb and to your delight.Set-up
You can well imagine that a television of this size is anything but
easy to install. The box itself requires four people just to move or
open it. When you invest in a QUALIA product from Sony, you get their
“white glove” treatment, and to see these professionals move this into
my living room was a feat to behold. Five people were necessary in the
end to ensure that the set made it successfully up on its dedicated
stand without a scratch (but a few fingerprints – no white gloves,
unfortunately). The stand (185 pounds) comes in its own box, is styled
in exactly the same way as the 006, and thoughtfully includes the
entire area under the TV to be used to display your components – wire
runners are included along the back to make the finished installation
neat and tidy. A splendid-looking set of powered speakers are easily
attached to the sides of the screen, and provide immediate sound in
place of an outboard surround sound system.

The
back apron of the set has six inputs, with a courtesy seventh on the
front left below the screen. These include four banks of
component/S-video/composite inputs and another two HDMI connections,
one with analog L/R inputs compatible with the DVI output of a DVD
player (which contains no audio). Finally, there are two antenna/cable
inputs (for PIP windows) on F connectors that are Qualm Cable Card
compatible (check with your cable company), meaning that you don’t have
to use an outboard cable box to watch premium digitally scrambled
programming – the cards they send you can be used by the TV directly,
allowing you to use the set’s slender silver remote control to change
channels or any other function that can be programmed into its 256
memory slots. There are also a pair of 1394 Firewire inputs on four-pin
mini-jacks suitable for use with many digital cameras, video camcorders
and some computers, at least the ones made by Sony. Interestingly, the
Firewire worked perfectly with SD sources, but when I connected my
QUALIA 002 HDTV camcorder, SDTV 480p sources showed clear through with
sound, but not HDTV 720p or 1080i. The three JVC D-VHS decks I use
could not play back anything other than 480i/p. But all other analog
and digital inputs on the 006 performed flawlessly. I also particularly
liked the fact the Sony lets you remove unused inputs from the scroll
list, and you can assign a name from a short list of sources to any of
the inputs, simplifying the changing of source inputs to a few clicks
on the same remote button.

Because
I am a professional audio and video calibrator, I see and work on just
about every type of technology made in the last 60 years. But when I
lit this television up, it was like the sun came out on a rainy day.
Everything I looked at was immediately sharper, brighter and more
three-dimensional-looking than on any other commercially available rear
projector to date. It is simply a stunning image. HD Cable and the
anamorphic DVD equivalent were the first items up for bid, beginning
with “SWAT.” Half an hour into the film, Samuel L. Jackson and Collin
Farrell stop at a street-side food stand. The most striking thing about
the 006 is its tremendous ability to delineate three-dimensionality. In
this scene, the sense that you can see around the far sides of people
and other objects is seriously palpable, even though no such actual
biocular information is present. I find this effect similar to looking
at 35mm slides projected at the same realistic light levels and
proportional size.

A
similar 35mm slide comparison can be made with respect to color
fidelity. The 006 is nothing short of outstanding. In “Dr. Seuss’s The
Cat in the Hat,” almost every scene in the movie is outrageously
color-coordinated. Yet for each shot, the sheer detail, range of hues
and level of saturation produced a vibrancy that is normally reserved
for Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) member
screenings; these feature a fresh print and a properly calibrated 35mm
motion picture and 6.1 sound system. The purple cupcake paint splotches
on the yellow wall of the kitchen, the orange fish in the green clay
teapot and the blue-haired Thing One and Thing Two and their fire
engine-red transdimensional Transportalator are just three consecutive
examples where color choices by the cinematographer and director can
produce more stunning, more realistic results at home with the 006 then
in 99 percent of motion picture theaters throughout the world. This is
not an exaggeration. Unless you’re lucky enough to be or know an
Academy member, this SXRD television is the closest and most affordable
way to see HDTV from the director’s chair.